[Commentary] The author—may Allah have mercy on him—reports from ʿĀʾishah, in the chapter titled “Moderation in Worship,” that three men once came to the houses of the Prophet ﷺ and asked his wives about the acts he performed inside his home. The Prophet’s deeds are either public—such as what he did in the mosque, the marketplace, or in gatherings with his Companions, and these were obvious to most of the Companions living in Madinah—or private, known only to the members of his household or to servants like ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd, Anas ibn Mālik, and others, may Allah be pleased with them all.

So the three men went to the Prophet’s wives to learn about his private worship, meaning what he did at home. When they were told, they seemed to think it too little, for the Prophet ﷺ would fast and then break the fast, stand in prayer and then sleep, and he would marry women and enjoy marital life. They judged this practice as lacking because they were filled with zeal for righteousness. Yet zeal is not the true measure; the measure is what the Sacred Law prescribes.

The Prophet ﷺ then came and said, “Are you the ones who said such-and-such?” They answered, “Yes.” One of them had said, “I shall pray all night and never sleep.” The second said, “I shall fast every day and never break the fast.” The third said, “I shall keep away from women and never marry.” They admitted that these were indeed their words.

There is no doubt that what they proposed runs contrary to the Sacred Law, for it places undue hardship on the soul and exhausts it: a person would never sleep, spending his entire lifetime in prayer—this is undoubtedly